ISO certification routes for a small or mid-size company

Getting ISO certified means building a management system that meets the standard, then passing an audit from an accredited certification body, the certification body itself doesn't help build the system, only assess it, which is why most companies use a second resource alongside it.

Advisera sells template packs and self-paced courses for building an ISO 9001 or ISO 27001 management system without hiring a consultant, at a fraction of consulting cost, aimed at a company with someone internally who can drive the implementation using the templates as a starting point rather than a finished answer. An independent ISO consultant costs more but handles the implementation directly, useful when no one internally has the time or the specific background in the standard. Going straight to a certification body such as BSI or SGS for guidance alongside the audit itself is possible but limited, most certification bodies keep implementation support and audit function separate to avoid a conflict of interest, so this route usually still needs one of the other two alongside it.

A company with internal capacity and a reasonable timeline does well with Advisera's templates. A company that needs the system built for it, not just a starting template, needs a consultant regardless of the extra cost.